by Tiisetso Maloma

I have sold have sold over a 1000 copies of my 2013 self published book ‘Forget The Business Plan Use This Short Model’ since the start of its marketing in April 2013. This is 600 + ebooks via e-stores such as Amazon, iBookstore, Kobo and others. The other is hardcopies sold straight from me through either couriering or personal meetings.

eBook sales were mostly international. Anyway, for a self published South African, I am proud of these online sales given our ebook market in only now developing. A Kanye West like rant is deserved, so good I should spit Ultramel custard – khotha so hard. It says to me I can do much better this year, which I am hard working on.

I have helped publish a number of South African authors online via my ebook conversion and distribution company Bula Buka, and marketing advised on some.

I am going to share with you points based on what I did and what I am going to correct in promoting my book.

Why wait for publishers?

Conventions, in our case publishers, are there to facilitate efficiency to get value (books) conveniently (they have well located stores) in the hands of users (readers/consumers). In any industry these applies.

Just because they say no to facilitate your value (book), it doesn’t mean your book doesn’t deserve to get in the hands of readers. They do not dictate what value is, consumers do that. More important is ‘goal keepers’ (consumers) not ‘gate-keepers’.

It is the information age, a buyer’s market. If you believe you have a valuable and/or entertaining story to share, go ahead validate it with your market and self publish – thanks to the internet it is much easier today. Conventions will find you ahead and you will be leveraged then.

Book examples: take ’50 Shades of Gray’ and ‘I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell’. Conventions said no to them at first, then the authors self published and consumers said yes to the books (million dollar big way) – conventions came around later.

My book is getting me opportunities which weight financially more than the book sales. This leads me to say it is not only about huge book sales but advancing your career.

Let’s get into the ways to market your book..

1.     Don’t release just yet: validate

Look, books are products. Like any other products they are intended for a use. So you need to validate if anyone would use them (buy/read them) before you actually make them.

An entertaining book renders use (entertainment) to whoever is reading it.

I did validate my book’s concept and the ‘short model’ part. I validated these with a couple of entrepreneurs around me. However what I should have done was to share these validations onto public platforms (social media) before launching, so as to grab believers in how I was to solve their entrepreneurial problems.

When you are done with the concept of your book, before writing, or as you begin writing, start sharing briefly some concepts, tactics or stories to test if they stick with people. This grabs followers of your message. Those are possible buyers. They could even sway the direction of your book: they will say we can buy your book if it is like this and not like that.

Do read into these people, read how you can find them in groups and figure out ways to engage with them.

I’m sure you do get retweets on twitter; likes and comments on Facebook. It means people take note of what you are saying. Test your book in this way as well.

2.     Don’t release just yet: build buzz